The Cherry War
by Great Thumbs of Wisdom
Summary: In the Dim Labyrinth, a terrible war rages between the Red and Blue Leaders. Two armies strive to conquer the dark mazes and capture the cherries and marbles they find there; can #73 and his fellow Red Pikmin survive the conflict? 2-player battle mode.


**Ah yes, 2-Player Battle, in which you fight over cupid's grenades, lost marbles, and the occassional nectar egg.**

--

POP.

The new red pikmin did a graceful flip through the air, over the head of its Master, and onto the ground behind Him. Squeaking happily, the red pikmin shook itself, did a small hop, and made a high pitched squeak, happy to be freed from the ground and happier still to have been freed by this magnificant Big Plucker.

The Master did not stop, hurriedly dashing to the next red sprout and pulling it free of the ground. The newly plucked leafling fell in behind the Big Plucker and found itself to be a part of a larger group; at least twenty-three other leaflings, plus seven more in the ground.

"Hello!" squeaked one of the other pikmin, who like the new leafling was just freshly plucked. "I'm number 61!"

"Hello!" replied the leafling, looking up at the large red tripod (the Onion) that stood over the rapidly moving group. "I'm number 73!"

Another leafling said hello, as two new leaflings jostled it. There was a lot of jostling going on, and a lot of greeting as well. 73 watched in awe as the Master sprang from one sproutling to the next, plucking them with a frenzy until they were all above ground and shaking free of dirt.

This was too fast!

Quickly, 73 pushed and jostled his way to the edge of the group, away from the milling confusion of his fellow pikmin. Leaves fluttered everywhere and there were too many "Hellos!" to reply to with anything other than a "Hi".

Yes, it was much nicer at the edge of the group, decided 73. He looked around and found that he was standing at the edge of a dim red light that seemed to be emanating from the Master and the Onion. Inky blackness dominated the ceiling, if there was a ceiling, and yet more blackness stretched off into infinity in several directions. There were walls here and there, vague in the dim light, and the ground seemed to be packed down tightly but soft at the same time; it was a sort of light brown dirt, with the occasional discoloration.

But what really caught 73's eye was not the Onion, not even the Master. It was a giant orb sitting not six strides away, flickering softly in the red light. The orb appeared to be of glass, with a mess of red paint in the center that clearly marked it as a possession of the Master. It was beautiful.

A Marble. THE Marble.

Suddenly a whistle blew, cutting off 73's observation of his strange new surroundings. He looked left, found the back of another pikmin's head blocking his view, and stepped a bit to the right. Yes, now he could see; the Master was calling another group of red pikmin over, out of the shadows on the far side of the cavernous room. Several of the leaflings that stood around and in front of 73 called "Hello!" and "Hi!" as the other reds approached them, then dutifully turned back to watching the Master, who seemed to be counting them.

The other reds filed into place in the group quickly, filtering into any gaps they could find in the mass of milling leaflings. 73 immediately noticed that most of these new reds bore flowers, while the rest had buds. They all looked experienced, knowledgeble, and somewhat bruised here and there.

One of the flower pikmin sidled up next to 73, who immediately addressed him. "Hello! I'm number 73!"

"I'm number 28," replied the flower pikmin, looking down his long nose at the leafling. "I'm guessing you want to know something?"

Before 73 could reply, the Master gave two high-pitched tweets on his whistle, one of them short and the other drawn out. Recognizing instantly the second whistle-sound as the general order to follow, 73 sprang forward and began to follow the Big Plucker, making sure to keep the bobbing red light atop his head constantly in sight. The red light was the source of the glow; 73 looked over his shoulder for a second as they ran down one of the dark corridors and saw the light of the Onion quickly fading away.

Standing between the Onion and the Red Marble was a small group of six leaf pikmin. As the murky gloom closed in and the pikmin behind 73 blocked his view, he saw that the six leaflings were milling about cautiously. They were guarding both the Marble and the Onion.

Turning back to face the front, 73 found himself moving steadily towards the center of the group, and immediately corrected his course. Again on the far right edge of his squad, and able to see the Master running swiftly ahead, 73 allowed himself to observe his surroundings again. The ground was still the same here, the ceiling still hidden in the darkness, but now that he was close to the wall the pikmin could see that it was made out of ancient cave rock. As he ran with his stem trailing behind him and leaf fluttering, he brushed all three of his root-like right hand fingers against the wall. It was cold and damp, as well as very hard.

The Master was running very fast now, realized 73. He looked ahead again and realized that the Big Plucker was so far ahead, he was actually leaving some of the leaflings behind. The young sprout increased his pace and tried to catch up, but to no avail. He stumbled, almost tripped, and only righted himself when most of his fellow leaflings had passed by.

73 felt disappointed in himself. He was not doing his best. He was letting other pikmin just like him outwork him. He strove to catch up and managed to close the distance until he was even with the front of the leafling pack.

Most of the bud pikmin were strides ahead of the leaflings by now, and the flower pikmin were ahead of even them. Still the Master continued to run, big booted feet thumping in the dry dirt. Big puffs of dust were rising up everywhere.

Glancing over his shoulder into the forboding blackness, 73 wondered what it would be like to get left behind.

Then the Master stopped, and quite suddenly. The flower pikmin pulled up behind him in a relatively ordered cluster, all twelve of them. Then the eight bud pikmin bunched up amongst them, and finally the twenty-four leaflings. Forty-four red pikmin all total; 73 wondered what the six leaflings back at the Onion were doing. Probably sitting around and relaxing, maybe singing. He wished he could be singing right now.

As if on cue, several leaf pikmin, a bud, and a couple flowers began to hum softly. It was a tune instantly recognizable to 73, being programmed into his brain, and he instantly joined in. Pretty soon most of the large squad was humming in tune, melodious and quietly. The Master seemed not to notice. 73 went right on singing.

Suddenly the Master blew his whistle, singling out a small group of pikmin. Five broke away from the group and moved towards the Master, but he simply blew his whistle again and directed them to a point in the tunnel that was between two walls. They ran dutifully to the spot and went dull, standing by for new orders and using the time to guard their spot. One of the reds was a flower, the rest were leaves.

Nodding in satisfaction, the Master called the squad to order and moved past the group of five. Curious as to what was going on, 73 asked the pikmin next to him as they ran down a new corridor.

"I'm just a leafling!" replied the pikmin, "I know as little as you do." He moved away, towards the center of the pack. 73 continued running, his root-like toes digging into the dry dusty ground of the black tunnels.

Several more times the Master stopped and deposited five or six pikmin, almost always leaflings. With his natural sense of direction, 73 realized that they were moving in a wide semi-circle around the Onion, leaving small squads here and there. He began to formulate an idea as to what was going on.

They were guarding something. But what?

The sixth time the Master stopped to deposit a group of pikmin, 73 was singled out as one of the group. Glad to get a break from all the running in the gloomy darkness and nearly getting left behind, the leaf pikmin jumped forward and took his place in the choke point in the tunnel. A bud pikmin, two leaf pikmin and a flower pikmin took their places around him.

With a whistle, the Master called the remaining active pikmin to him and ran off into the gloom. Seven flower pikmin, six bud pikmin and two leaf pikmin followed dutifully. Fifteen reds.

When the Master's light had disappeared around a bend and the five dismissed pikmin were all alone in the darkness, 73 spoke up.

"Hello, I'm number 73," he said, greeting each of the pikmin in turn. The bud pikmin and the flower pikmin barely responded.

"Number 21," said the bud pikmin.

"Number 45," said the flower.

The two leaf pikmin were more responsive.

"Hello, I'm number 53!" greeted the first.

"And I'm number 61," said the second. "You already know me."

73 nodded and squeaked his response happily. "Yes, yes, we spoke under the Onion! Hey, does anybody know what in the world is going on?"

It was the flower pikmin that replied first.

"We're establishing a perimeter," he said. "The Master has left us here to block this passage."

"Why do we need to block it?" asked 53 confusedly.

Now it was the bud pikmin's turn to speak.

"We are to guard this passage."

73 cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Uh, why do we have to guard it? I mean, I know the Master ordered us to..."

61 cut him off, waving his leaf and tiny right hand dismissively. "No, no I think I know what he means. Predators?"

Both the flower pikmin (45) and the bud pikmin (21) shook their heads. The flower pikmin spoke up first.

"Apparently you leaves don't know what's going on around here. Should I give them some history, 21?"

"I don't care," said 21, "Just shut 'em up. I want to listen." The bud wandered off a few long strides into the gloom, until only his faint bioluminescence could be seen.

45 sat down and motioned for the leaf pikmin to sit down with him. 73 dropped to his haunches and reached back to prop himself up with both hands. His stem drooped back lazily.

"It all started when number 1 was plucked," said 45, leaning forward and gesticulating with his hands and flower. "All of us were plucked, actually. The Master got us all out of the ground and into formation, right there below the Onion, and left ten of our number to guard the Marble. He took the rest of us around the cavern and cut down these plants, Pellet Posies, and took the pellets to the Onion. When that was done the Master got us all together, leaving just the ten leaves around the Marble, and took us around searching for nectar and cherries."

"Cherries?" asked 53 and 61 in unison.

45 dismissed the two leaflings with a wave. "I'll get to that later. Right now, let me just continue with the story. Now where was I?"

"Nectar and cherries," said 73.

"Ah yes, nectar. You see, the Master didn't give any of us time to mature in the ground. See this flower?" he pointed to his flower. "I didn't just grow this. We had to go and find these eggs, hidden in alcoves, and break them. Big globs of nectar came out, plopped down right on the ground, and the Master just swarmed us all over them. Almost everybody got some nectar, save 21 over here and a few others."

21 harumphed from the darkness.

"Anyway, we went back to the Onion, all flowered up and spoiling for a fight, and what do we find?"

There was a pause. The three leaflings exchanged glances and looked back at 45.

"Uh... what did you find?" asked 53.

21 called out from the darkness. "We found a Breadbug, that's what we found."

45 twisted on his haunches and put his right hand down to steady himself. "Aw, shut up you old tosser! I'm telling this story!"

"And doing a right poor job of it, too!" said the bud.

45 didn't reply this time, just grouched a bit and turned back to face the leaflings. "Anyway," he continued, "There was this Breadbug. Nasty thing, big as the Marble, bigger even! It was all brown and hard-like, with a small face and big dumb eyes. You could hear it clomping around from a mile off, and we did too, heard it right through these walls." he gestured to the cave walls that loomed ominously somewhere in the gloom. "The thing was already halfway to the Marble, and it meant business; gonna steal it and take it to its den. No sir, we wouldn't have none of this, and the Master wouldn't either."

The leaflings were all hunched forward by now, eager and drawn into the story. "What did you do?" they asked in quiet unison.

The flower pikmin leaned forward, eyes hard and nose twitching ever so slightly, and clapped his tiny hands together. "I'll tell you what we did. We swarmed the bugger! Jumped all over it and beat it with everything we had. But no matter how many times we hit it, the thing just kept moving forward, like some sort of indefatigable moving boulder. Clomp, clomp, clomp. It wouldnt stop! Completely invulnerable to all our attacks. But then the Master had an idea, and he started throwing some of us at the thing. Most of us missed, of course, but a good many of us hit the target, crushed the Breadbug under our weight. Every time a pikmin hit it, the thing would seem to flatten a little bit and would yelp, then roll over and flop a little bit before getting back up. I landed on it myself, you know."

21 grumbled something in the darkness.

"Oh yeah, and 21 landed on it too. Squished the life out of it, he did. The last one to land on the bugger. Killed it outright." 45 said this with vague disinterest, then continued the story. "Anyway, at about that time the Master had decided on some sort of plan. He had us dispose of the Breadbug and then we were off, galavanting through these tunnels in search of nectar and cherries."

"What are cherries, anyway?" asked 61.

45 shook his flower and squeaked. "Oh, fine. Cherries. They're, uh... hmm. How do I..."

Suddenly there was a small sound overhead, and out of nowhere a large red orb with a stick attached to the top dropped from the ceiling. 73 jumped when he heard the sound, thinking it might be a vicious Breadbug, and watched the red orb with the stick on top drop to the ground. It made a thud, a small cloud of dust, and only bounced twice. It was about twelve strides off, just barely visible in the gloom. 21 exclaimed loudly and 45 laughed uproarously.

"See that? Speak of the Blues! It's a flipping cherry. Right here! A cherry! Ha-ha." The flower pikmin shook his head and continued to chuckle squeakily.

61 and 53 were in awe. "Wow. What should we do with it?"

45 just shrugged. "Pick it up if you like. Take it back to the Onion. Who cares, the things are useless."

For a moment, 73 considered going after the cherry and bringing it back. Then he heard 21 exclaim, and froze.

_Clomp clomp clomp._

45 did not freeze, but looked vaguely disinterested. "Breadbug," he said, and went back to his story. 73 paid him no heed, standing to his feet and looking around fearfully, as did the the other two leaf pikmin. Was the Breadbug coming to steal them away and take them to its nest? Was it going to eat them?

_Clomp clomp clomp. _A moment later the beast lumbered into view, armless and with two short legs, a round head and large, dumb blue eyes. It stomped up to the cherry, flopping its feet as it walked and leaning left and right. When it reached the cherry it pushed it aside and kept moving, faster now, its feet making odd sounds. The leaflings moved aside as it lumbered past.

_Clomp clomp clomp_. The Breadbug disappeared into the gloom, turning a bend as it went and continuing on until not even its odd footfalls could not be heard.

45 watched the Breadbug go, then turned back to his formerly enraptured audience. "Well, I guess you leaves have lost attention, have you?"

The leaflings shook their heads rapidly and dropped to their haunches. 73 preferred to lie down on his side and prop his head up with one arm, his heart racing and a need for relaxation overwhelming him.

"So there we were, moving through the tunnels in search of cherries. Twice we found them, and once we found a nectar egg. We busted it open and those of us that had missed out on the first drink got their own fill this time. Right 21? Ha-ha."

21 did not reply.

"Anywho, we kept moving and suddenly we came across this strange yellow marble, half buried in the ground. The Master, his face just lit right up, and he had us start digging. Dig-dig-dig, scooping up clumps of dry dirt with our flowers and tossing 'em aside. The Marble began to surface rapidly, until we had half of what had been buried aboveground."

The flower pikmin suddenly paused, looking left and right as if to ascertain nothing was nearby, and then he leaned in close as if to whisper.

"And that's when they came."

"That's when who came?" asked 53 in a frightened whisper.

73 sat up now, leaning forward and placing his hands on the ground between his legs. He watched as 45 leaned back, his eyes suddenly recalling some memory of shock, his stem and flower tilted forward aggressively.

"The blue pikmin."

The leaves gasped. Blue pikmin? But those were the enemy! All the red pikmin knew that from the moment they were born, just like they knew what Onions were and what Marbles were and how to follow whistle commands.

And suddenly it all made sense to 73. He exclaimed, and finally realized _why_ the Master was making a perimeter, _why _the Marble and the Onion needed to be guarded, _why they were sitting here all alone in this corridor._

"They came out of nowhere," said 45, his formerly joking voice now gone hard and serious. "More of them than us. All flower pikmin. It was forty against fifty. A massacre." The flower pikmin's hands shook subconsciously.

"What happened?" whispered the leaflings.

Quite suddenly, 21 appeared from the gloom, eyes serious and hard like his flowered friend. The bud pikmin seated himself next to the others. "We fought, that's what happened. Our Master and the Blue Leader were throwing pikmin back and forth. 45 here, he was on digging duty, just trying to get the Yellow Marble out of the ground as fast as possible. I got grabbed, by the scruff of the neck, and thrown right at the Blue Leader. I missed him, but when I landed I jumped right at him and latched onto his back."

Now it was 45's turn to interject. "That's about when the blues attacked the Marble. There was fighting going on all over the place, horrible, destructive fighting. Pikmin screaming and then moaning in death. Ghostly apparitions, both blue and red, floated into the air as pikmin died left and right. Several blues landed all around me and the others digging at the Marble. I broke away and attacked one of them, and he attacked me. I overpowered the blue pikmin, took his blows and then sent him flying onto his back. Before he could get up I beat him down with my flower. Killed him."

21 was nodding sadly as the leaflings exchanged glances, aghast. "Yeah. I held onto the Blue Leader as long as I could. Whacked him again and again with my flower. There were a couple of us on him, and I was on his right shoulder, hitting his bubble helmet. The accursed Blue Leader twisted and jerked, calling what blue pikmin he had left under his direct control in a cluster around him. Then he flung me off. I landed away from the blues, on my back. Lost my flower." He pointed to his bud. "Then I was up, and fighting. A blue knocked me down but then another red attacked, killed it as it stood there. I traded blows with a blue that ran up to me, pikmin getting knocked down all around. Then I got knocked down, and when I jumped up again it was over.

45 shook his head. "No. No it wasn't over. I killed my third blue, and I was bruised," he pointed to a bruise on his shoulder and another on his torso. "Then the Master jumped up next to me and he just... well, he just _burped_."

"Burped?" questioned the leaflings.

"Yeah. Burped. And what's really strange, he expunged this cloud of purple gas that just flew all over the place. No, wait. It came from his hand, it's what made the burping noise. A spray. It covered all the blues and they just.... Hmm. They just went back into the ground. All of them, like they had just been planted. And they all reverted back to leaves."

"The Master called all of us to him then," said 21. "The Marble was practically out of the ground, and there were about thirty of us left, so it came up within half a second. As many of us as could grabbed onto the Marble and began to tote it back to the Onion, chanting to keep in pace and all tired. We got a good bit ahead of the blues, and as we were carrying this big Yellow Marble the Blue Leader was rushing back and forth trying to pluck his pikmin. After a few seconds, they came up on their own."

45 looked deeply disturbed, his eyes wide and unblinking. "Yeah, and when they came up they rushed us. I was one of those that didn't get on the Marble. The Master formed us up in a sort of protective screen, inbetween the moving Marble and the blues. The Blue Leader called his pikmin to him and just sent them right into us. We were outnumbered just as bad as before, I knew, and the first blue that attacked me knocked me down. Bruised me. Then the Master belched that spray again, and planted every last one of those blues. The Blue Leader, heh, he was just yelling and ranting as he rushed to pluck them all again, but by then the Master had called all of us that were left and we were running as fast as we could behind him. When those blues came back up, they were all leaves, like I said before, and they couldn't keep up with us."

"What about the Marble?" asked 53. "Did they catch up with it?"

21 shook his head. "No. The Master kept all the pikmin that weren't carrying the Marble around us carriers. Walked with us all the way back to the Onion. That took some time, trust me. Yep, and when we got there all ten of the leaf pikmin that had been guarding the Marble and the Onion... they were all dead. This grey pig monster with a blue snout, it had blown water on all of them, drowned them where they stood. Right as we got there the last of 'em succumbed and fell dead. Dissipated and turned to ghosts, like the pikmin that died in the battle did."

"What did you do about the water pig?" asked 61.

"The Watery Blowhog?" questioned 45, before continuing to say, "We killed it. The Master had 21 and the others drop the Marble, then took all thirty of us straight at the damned thing. It reared back and blew a long stream of water at us, spritzed me with some of it but nothing bad, and then he was tossing everybody within arm's reach at the thing. I got thrown when it was halfway dead. Landed on its head and covered up its right eye, then beat away at it with my flower. The thing began to rear back, really far, like it was going to lunge forward and buck us all off. It would have, too, except that at the last minute the Master swarmed all the reds he hadn't thrown onto it. The thing reared a little more and went stiff, then it's life just extinguished like the Breadbug's had, and it just flopped over on its side and disappeared. A big ghost rose into the air with a wailing moan, right where it had been, and it just disappeared. Gone. Nothing to show for what we did."

"So what about us?" asked 73. "If you couldn't carry this Watery Blowhog because it disappeared, then that means that ten pikmin were dead with no chance of being reborn. Right?"

As was common knowledge to all pikmin, if a pikmin was killed in battle by another pikmin then it would be reborn, albeit with no recollection of a former life. 73 wondered which red had died that caused him to be born. Then it occurred to him that he was one of the last ten reds to be plucked; it was possible that he had come from a Pellet Posie or something like that. Not necessarily, of course, but the possibility was still there.

"Well that's just it," said 21 suddenly. "We had nothing to show for our kills. So after the Master had made us to take the Yellow Marble to the Onion and suck it up, he took us on a little cherry hunt."

"I thought 45 said cherries were useless," said 61.

"They are, actually," said 45. "They cause nothing but destruction."

21 shook his head and groaned. "That's not true!" he turned to the leaflings and said, "They just have random effects, that's all. We found two, and one of 'em turned out to be a Fiery Blowhog; the Master activated that, but it never showed up. Our guess is that it spawned at the Blue Onion, like the Watery Blowhog spawned at ours. Anyway, the second cherry was more useful. A '+10' thing. Ten little seedlings popped out of the Onion and then the Master just started plucking like crazy. He should have let you guys bloom, or at least bud, so that you wouldn't be so useless."

73 felt somewhat ashamed. He knew it wasn't his fault, but he was a leaf pikmin. Just about useless. Weaker than the other pikmin and slower too. Undeveloped and worthless in comparison.

About a minute passed. The five pikmin sat in a small cluster, huddled against the dark and lost in their own private thoughts. Finally, 53 spoke.

"So, what's the Master doing right now? Is he going to come back and get us eventually?"

45 and 21 both shrugged and shook their heads, flower and bud swaying gently as if saddened. Said the former: "No idea." Said the latter: "He might be raiding the Blue Onion for all we know."

Suddenly, both pikmin stiffened. They turned left, in the direction that the Master had left in so long ago, and jumped to their feet. The leaf pikmin continued sitting down. 53 even went down on his side, propping his head up on one hand and staring out into the darkness.

73 looked up at 21. "What is it?" he asked the bud pikmin in a whisper. He wondered if it was just another Breadbug, or the one they had seen earlier coming back for another pass.

A visible shudder ran through 21's body. He didn't look down.

"Blues."

Everything froze.

Slowly, fearfully, the leafling pikmin stood to their feet. Darkness closed in about them, their faint bioluminesence the only thing that gave them light. The cherry still sat not twelve strides away, inviting and at the same time, ominous. Ominous like the dim labyrinth that enclosed these hapless red pikmin.

Now they heard it. 73 heard it, at least. The steady pitter-patter of a hundred tiny feet. Fifty blues. The louder stomping sounds of the running Blue Leader. Steadily the noises grew louder, grew closer. Grew more and more ominous.

Still they could not be seen.

"Where are they?" asked 61.

53 made a small whimpering sound. "They're invisible," he whispered, taking a step back. 73 gulped and looked left and right. Suddenly he saw it.

Small puffs of dust. Hundreds of small puffs of dust, coming right at them through the darkness.

"Get the cherry!" screamed 45 suddenly. "Take the cherry!"

Suddenly 73 knew what he must do. With a cry, he rushed forward to attack the invisible blue pikmin. As he did so they suddenly became visible, but only those that were within the range of his bioluminesence. A small handful were illuminated, and that was all, the others still invisible and swarming. Blue all over, like the reds were red all over, but instead of noses they all had open triangular mouths.

A whistle blew, and then the small moment of strange silence was broken as the pikmin all gave loud squeaks.

The first thing that 73 did was run through and try to get the Cherry. He got to within three paces of it before a blue pikmin stopped him and swung its leaf at him. Oh good, oh thank the Master, it was a leafling like him.

_CRACK._ The leaf slammed into 73's face. Pain erupted in his skull and he stumbled back. Again the blue pikmin attacked, squeaking with the effort of swinging its stem. But this time 73 attacked also, and both leaves collided in midair with the sound of a small explosion. The blue was driven back a step this time, and 73 attacked again, squeaking loudly and bringing his leaf forward with incredible speed. The blue squeaked aloud as the red pikmin nailed it full on in the face, and flew backwards. Dazed, it landed next to the Cherry.

The Cherry! A blue pikmin had grabbed the Cherry! 73 rushed it, taking the last four strides to reach it and caught up with the blue. It was a bud, he was overmatched. But he had to have the Cherry.

The blue dropped the Cherry and attacked. Another blue came, in fact all the blues, as the Blue Leader was directing them like a swarm to get the large red orb. The blue pikmin's bud slammed into 73's leaf and sent a painful shockwave through him.

And then 45 appeared, yelling like some sort of demented pikmin, and slammed his flower into the bud blue's head. It stumbled and he struck again, knocking it to the ground before surging forward and beating its face in with three drawn-out blows.

"Get. The. Cherry!" the flower pikmin yelled, punctuating each word by hitting the fallen blue with his flower. 73 rushed forward and found that the leaf pikmin he had downed earlier now had the Cherry.

61 bowled over several blues, and then was knocked onto his back himself. 53 appeared next to the Cherry just as 73 reached it, knocking the leaf blue to the ground. 73 watched in shock as his fellow leaf red pummelled the downed blue to death, saw it shrink into a singularity and rise into the air as a faint blue ghost, an unearthly moan emanating from it. There were similiar moans on either side of 73.

"Yah!" yelled 21 as he suddenly appeared, heavily bruised. He struck a blue flower pikmin full on in the back with his bud and bowled it over onto its face. "The Cherry!" he yelled.

But 73 was already preoccupied. Another leaf pikmin had attacked him, and as he and it traded blows another blue pikmin siezed the Cherry. In a surge of desperation, 73 struck his opponent in the face and killed it where it stood. The blue leafling swayed and toppled over with a tiny moan before rising into the air as a ghost.

"The Cherry!" roared 73 as he lunged forward in long, bounding strides. Then 45 was there, rushing past him and knocking two blues out of the way. The flower pikmin shoved the blue that was stealing the Cherry in the back and knocked it to the ground, facefirst. Then he spun away, coming to grips with another pikmin. Most of the blues had swept past now, but they had turned around and were swarming back.

"Grab the Cherry!"

73 lunged forward, gripped the Cherry with both hands, and hoisted it into the air. Instantly he knew that he would not be able to get it out of the fray, but he didn't care anymore. He was going to fight his way out of here if he had to drop the Cherry three times for every blue!

Running as fast as he could, 73 held the Cherry in front of him like a sort of ram and battered blues out of the way. They flew left and right with sharp cries. Another wrapped its arm around 73 from behind as he ran, pulled him over and threw him to the ground. The Cherry flew up and into the air, over the heads of the blues. Now on the ground, the arm still around his neck, 73 raised his arm into the air and cried "Noo!"

Suddenly 21 slammed into the blue that had 73, digging his long red nose into its chest and knocking it to the ground. He attacked another and yelled. "Get yourself out of here! Take the Cherry!"

Pulling himself to his feet, 73 attempted to run but instead met a blue pikmin. It attacked him, struck him with its bud. 73 cried out and backpedalled, threw up his leaf to protect him, and deflected the next bud attack. With a yell, the red leafling threw himself forward and struck the blue in the side of the head. It stumbled and went down on one knee. Yelling again, 73 brought his leaf down on the back of it's head with such force that it died instantly. He didn't pause to watch it turn ghost, instead pushing through the melee.

A red ghost rose into the air with a wail behind 73 as he bowled three blues over. He had lost sight of the other red pikmin. Then he saw the Cherry, with blues swarming over it and a determined 61 battering them aside with it. The determined little red pikmin was going to be overwhelmed, thought 73. He rushed forward and attacked, connecting blows with the sounds of small explosions. A blue stumbled and fell to its face, turned ghost and fled into the darkness above. 61 continued to run, and 73 followed him.

Suddenly a flower pikmin tackled 61 from the side. The Cherry bounced and rolled forward, flipped a blue leafling over it. 73 didn't stop, instead bringing his knee up as he ran and clubbing the blue flower pikmin in the head. Both he and it fell, but 73 was up in a flash. Now a blue pikmin had the Cherry. A red ghost rose up into the air with a cry.

"Oof!" grunted the blue pikmin as 73 slammed into the Cherry from the other side. The blue leafling, unprepared for the sudden collision, let go of the Cherry and went flying backwards. 73 now had the Cherry, and he rushed as fast as he could.

Blues were yelling, grappling for 73, but he wouldn't let them have this Cherry. He clubbed them with it, battering them left and right even though he was unable to see in front of him because of its bulk. Half a dozen of them were knocked onto their backs, clearing the way. 73 ran forward, making long strides but blinded by the bulk of the Cherry. Something slammed into the red orb, a blue flower pikmin that caught hold of the Cherry and held on tight. 73 continued to run, barely hampered by the new weight on the other end of the Cherry. The blue couldn't get its feet onto the ground and 73 was still running. Then he tripped.

The blue's backside dragged the ground when 73 stumbled. It yelled something in anger and surprise, but kept hold of the Cherry while 73 flipped over it, still gripping it, until he flew over and off it. He slammed into several blues and bowled them over, then he was struggling to his feet. The blue flower pikmin was already running.

"Yah!" came a yell. 45 was there suddenly, tackling a blue pikmin that was right behind 73 with its arms ready to grab him. Both blue and red went down, and 73 hardly stopped. But he could not catch the flower pikmin; it was too fast for him.

Curse this stupid leaf! roared 73 in his mind. He stiff-armed two blues in the chest and knocked them aside. Then 53 was there, catching the flowered blue with such force and surprise that 73 couldn't see what happened. Two blues stepped in his way and he fought them, killed one and knocked the other one down, and by then a red ghost was rising into the air, chasing a similiar blue ghost.

73 grabbed the Cherry and swung it to the left with all his might. Three blues went flying away, knocking their comrades over in all directions. Most of the blues had charged past again, and now 73 saw an opening.

He saw an opening!

As fast as his legs and leaf could carry him, 73 shot through the opening. Two blues grabbed at him, another snatched at his legs, but he broke free regardless and kept running. A lone blue leafling that had apparently stumbled during the charge was ahead of him. 73 ran right into it and knocked it flying so that it wailed and flailed all four limbs before landing on its back somewhere off to the left. Winded but alive, 73 continued to run, barely slowed by his collision.

A series of sharp and angry whistles blew. 73 recognized it instantly as a swarm command, and he could hear the blues chanting a cavalry to the rescue cry. He continued to run.

_Pit, pat. Pit, pat. Pit, pat._ 73 ran like he had never run before, bending backwards slightly to compensate for the weight of the Cherry. The sounds of pursuing blues began to fall behind him, and their cries of "For the Leader" and their cavalry to the rescue chant grew a little farther behind him.

73 looked over his shoulder as he ran, triumphant and exubrant that he had taken the Cherry and would escape.

But he would not escape. The fastest blue pikmin, sporting flowers, were rapidly closing the gap. They were only three or four strides behind him now, a trio of them with more behind. And no matter how fast 73 ran, he was going to be caught by them.

He was going to be left behind. He could feel the breath of the blue pikmin on his back, could almost see their foremost runner reaching out to grab him by the scruff of the neck and pull him down.

Suddenly there came a cry, and when 73 slowed to turn his head he saw a sight that made him proud to be a red pikmin. From out of nowhere, 45 appeared, tackling the foremost blue flower pikmin and swinging it to the ground by its neck. He screamed, "For the Master!" as he went down, the other two blues toppling over him.

"45!" cried 73, not stopping but still looking back. The valiant red flower pikmin was coming to his knees, a dozen flower pikmin just strides behind him.

"Take the Cherry! Win the fight!" cried 45, raising his fist. The flowered blue pikmin swarmed over him, but the red was already up and swinging his flower, clubbing one blue into the air so that it landed on its back, as two blues on the ground wrapped their arms about his legs.

73 turned and continued to run, legs pumping, Cherry bobbing up and down in his arms. As he rounded the bend, the cries and whistling of pikmin falling away, the last thing 73 heard was the quiet death cry of a red pikmin.

The little leafling continued to run. Tears ran down the sides of his face.

He knew not why he had fought, but he alone had survived and he alone had escaped. He now knew two things.

One, he was not a useless leafling. He had never been useless. His slow movements and his lack of strength had, in the end, meant little. And two, no matter how long he lived, no matter what happened, 73 would always remember his friends, 61, 53, 21, 45, and he would fight for them. Until he died, 73 would fight for them. And when his ghost rose to what ceiling this dark labyrinth had above, he would join them.

But first, he would send a thousand blue ghosts to prepare his way.

_Pit, pat. Pit, pat. Pit, pat._

_--_

**I don't really like the ending, so I may change it. May not. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and please review! I plan a sequel.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pikmin, nor Nintendo, or anything related to it. I no longer even own a Gamecube (curse you little brothers!) but I do retain a copy of the Pikmin 2 Official Strategy Guide. This is fanfiction material and should be treated as such.**


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